I don't want to be a blacksmith

[BradleySmall]

I am a lover and collector of hobbies, but at some point one has to draw the line. I am fine with stock removal, shaping, and sharpening. I just have no interest in picking up a huge hammer and anvil.

So the question is "What are my options for materials?"

Currently, I am only interested in small blades, from the wood carving up to the skinning range.

I am pretty sure 1095, W1, and O1 are available and can all be annealed, torch hardened and quenched and tempered in something akin to a toaster oven. Are there others that are as forgiving? And are HT services worth using? (Like whose do people like).

I have done some stuff for turning using HSS like M2 and some others where I just worked the material hard. I made flutes on gouges with an angle grinder and so forth with good results. I avoided dark red and simply ignored the blue. However, I couldn't imagine wanting to do this for a full size knife although, I can get M2 and T15 in sizes that would make for decent blade blanks. It just doesn't "feel" right.

 

[A.McPherson]

Hey Bradley,

No need to be a blacksmith, although it is super awesome to be one!

Just buy materials classes to the size of knife you have in mind, then grind away the rest.

Use a pro heat treater like JTknives and have them do you heat treat for you. Skip using carbon Steels and go for high alloy or stainless Steels.

Here JT's website: https://www.jarodtodd.com/

There are a bunch of other places that do HT, but I've never used them so I can't say anything about their quality.

 

[Hengelo_77]

use all the fancy steel you like and outsource HT
Stock removal is no way less then forging, it's just different ways to atcheve the same.
I also enjoy making smaller knives and they are not easier then large knives, there'se less room to compensate small mistakes, less place to hide.

 

[AVigil]

Get some 1084 and make a small forge, get some canola oil and go to town.

Personally I use mostly stainless steel and let the professionals worry about the heat treat

 

[Alex Topfer]

i routinely buy 1m lengths of W2, you could stock removal a longsword out of that. though the distal taper would be a lot of work. traditionally the person who did the handle was different to the bladesmith, so you could always to that find a local smith to work with.
look into local water jet cutting places, that helps a lot.

 

[Taz]

Jarod Todd or Bos Heat Treating at Buck Knives are my go to HT places. Great service, quality and prices from both HT places. I outsource most of my HT or go to Dragons Breath Forge and have them help me HT my simple carbon stuff (argon oven) until I get my own forge built.

1084, 1090, 1075 are pretty easy to HT in a forge. I am going to play with some 8670 and 80 CRV2 in the forge as well.